Introduction
What does a communication protocol mean? Communication protocols formally describe the digital message formats and rules. Communication protocols are necessary for exchange and transmission of messages between two or more computing devices and systems. They are, therefore, required in telecommunications. Communication protocols are to have the capability of covering authentication, error detection and correction, and signaling. Additionally, they have the capability of describing semantics, syntax, and synchronization of both digital and analog communications. These protocols are implemented at the hardware and software levels. There are several communication protocols for both Wide Area Network (WAN) and Local Area Network (LAN) used in various places for both analog and digital communications.
Wide Area Network (WAN) Communication Protocols
The implementation of WAN services for a solution to many problems requires that the providers consider some things. Among the choices which should be considered are WAN media and WAN communication protocols. Considering the WAN communication protocols, it can be a complex decision to make due to the numerous affordable protocols each with other reliable options. WAN communication protocols are sets of procedures, data formats, guidelines, and rules that are specifically used to describe ways in which data is transmitted over and through the WAN link. Below are the most common WAN protocols that are easily implementable while setting the WAN:
- Frame Relay
- Point to Point (PPP)
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- Synchronous Optical Networking/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH)
- Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
- Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)
- System Network Architecture (SNA)
Comparative Analysis of Frame Relay and PPP
Frame Relay Communication Protocol
Frame Relay is a WAN communication protocol standard for WAN internetworking. The protocol provides a fast and efficient method for data and information transmission from the user device to a router and WAN bridges. Additionally, the protocol is designed for cost-efficient transmission of data and information for intermittent traffic between nodes in the LAN networks and between two or several end points in the WAN networks. Frame Relay protocol works by putting data in a variable size unit referred to as a Frame. The protocol leaves any required error correction to the points between which data transmission is taking place. This helps in speeding up the overall transmission of data (Cope, 2001).
The frame structure of the Frame Relay protocol is similar to that of LAPD. However, instead of the frame header, there is a 2-byte Frame Relay header field. Within the Frame Relay header, there is a user-specified DLCI field. This field represents the destination address where the frame transmits data and information. Additionally, it has congestion and status signals which are sent to the user by the network. The transmission of the frame happens by way of virtual circuits. Virtual circuits are logical paths within the WAN network from an originating point. Furthermore, virtual networks may either be permanent (PVCs) or switched (SVCs).
Advantages of Frame Relay
Frame Relay communication protocol provides an effective alternative to the dedicated lines for the purpose of connecting LANs to the bridges and routers within the WAN network. The success and preference of Frame Relay over other WAN Communication protocols is based on the below underlying factors (Mannion, 2001):
- The Frame Relay communication protocol is integrated with virtual circuits. Therefore, bandwidth is consumed only when data and information are transmitted. The Frame Relay protocol can contain several virtual circuits across a certain line of data transmission. Additionally, each device in the network can use more bandwidth as they seem necessary. Therefore, Frame Relay protocols have a high speed of transmission (Cope, 2001).
- Frame Relay communication protocol has improved its reliability on the lines of communication as well as enhancement of error handling complexity at the end nodes. Therefore, the Frame Relay protocol has the immense capability of discarding any erroneous frames. This helps Frame Relay protocol to eliminate the process of time-consuming and error handling (Mannion, 2001).
Point to Point (PPP) Communication Protocol
Point to Point Protocol also referred to as PPP is a WAN communication protocol that enables communication between two devices in the network using a serial interface. It is a typical communication protocol for personal computers with a phone line connection between them and the server. The Internet service provider may provide the user with PPP connection to enable the provider’s server to respond to the user’s requests then pass the requests to the Internet after which the responses back to the user. PPP uses the Internet Protocol (IP) although it can handle others. PPP is sometimes classified under the members of the TCP/IP suite of the protocols. The PPP protocol is preferred because of some of its strengths among which include (Gu et al., 2013):
- It has a significantly comprehensive mechanism
- It has an elaborate encapsulated protocol, therefore, allowing multiple protocols in layer three to be multiplexed using a single link
- It has an error detection mechanism for the transmitted frames by using the CRC code in the frame headers
- It has a rapid mechanism with which it negotiates link parameters which include maximum frame size permitted
- It has a comprehensive method with which it tests links before they are transmitted as well as a link that monitors quality
- It has a way of which it supports for authentication of the connection between the nodes through multiple authentication protocols
- PPP also support additional features according to the users. Such features include compression, encryption, and link aggregation. Link aggregation is a feature that allows several devices within the network to use several physical data links as if they were one.
The most important advantage of PPP protocol is that it is extensible. New protocols have been added to the PPP protocol due to this feature over the years. The development design does not allow the protocol to use a single authentication protocol. However, this advantageous feature allows it a choice of the protocol for this purpose (Carels et al., 2015).
Conclusion
This paper has discussed Wide Area Network (WAN) communication protocols. It has listed the most common protocols of WAN within the network such as Frame Relay and PPP. It has gone on to show the differences between Frame Relay and PPP protocols as two of the most common WAN protocols through extensive discussion. It has compared their advantages and why network solution providers are going to prefer one protocol to another. However, the information contained herein is not what is all about the two WAN protocols because there are other details of the two protocols that solution providers can use to determine the protocol they are going to implement in a given WAN network.
References
Carels, D., De Poorter, E., Moerman, I., & Demeester, P. (2015). RPL Mobility Support for Point-to-Point Traffic Flows towards Mobile Nodes. International Journal Of Distributed Sensor Networks, 20151-13. doi:10.1155/2015/470349
Cope, J. (2001). Rival Routing Protocol Takes on Frame Relay. Computerworld, 35(20), 6.
Gu, Z., Small, M., Yuan, X., Marathe, A., & Lowenthal, D. (2013). Protocol Customization for Improving MPI Performance on RDMA-Enabled Clusters. International Journal Of Parallel Programming, 41(5), 682-703. doi:10.1007/s10766-013-0242-0
Mannion, P. (2001). Frame relay accepts challenge of Internet Protocol nets. Electronic Engineering Times (01921541), (1152), 18.
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